"Everyone, please put your phones away so we can start today's lecture. Yes, that means you, Arlo." Professor Sarah Cassidy called out towards the teen boy in a strained voice. Surprisingly, He didn't seem to pay her any heed. He was a bit of a class clown, but she often let him get away with his hijinks as he always listened to her when she said it was time to focus. This time, however, his eyes didn't move away from his phone's screen whatsoever.
Just what has gotten into all of them today? Sarah sighed. Usually, she could barely get her students to keep their eyes open for the dreaded 8AM Biology 101 class, but now they were all abuzz and not even bothering to hide their blatant smart phone usage.
She ran an exacerbated hand through her shoulder-length auburn hair before sliding it down to massage her protesting emerald eyes. She really didn't feel like dealing with this today. Freshmen always had this side to them, but she had assumed the worst was behind her now that they were a couple months into the university's fall semester.
"Haven't you seen the news, professor?" Asked her star student, Zoey, as her ponderous azure eyes suddenly bobbed up and peered at Sarah through black-rimmed glasses.
The blonde ponytailed eighteen-year-old was bubbling with excitement, a stark difference from her usual reserved self. Despite her quietness in class, she burned with a passionate fire during her field hockey games, earning her quite a bit of respect with the upperclassmen. Sarah was impressed by the girl's ability to balance her studies with her exercise, rewarding her with a fit build despite her bookish nature.
That said, Zoey was still very shy when off the field and tended to hide her athletic, feminine curves under unassuming, baggy hoodies and regular blue jeans. Sarah knew that all the nerdy science boys in the class wanted to get into her pants, but none had the guts to actually make any progress.
Sarah remembered when the guys used to chase after her in college - her melon-like breasts easily caught their attention. Even though she was almost ten years older than her freshmen students, she could still spot many of the virile young males ogling her. She was inwardly flattered, but not stupid enough to do anything with a student. She had tenure to think about someday.
"The news?" Sarah blinked, having zoned out for a second. She did remember hearing some sort of babbling newscaster on the radio during her morning commute to campus but had quickly changed the channel to music to wake herself up. "I'm sure whatever it is can wait until after class. We have a lot to cover on cellular structure before the exam next week. So, if everyone would please-"
"Here! Look, Cassidy!" Zoey's friend Diana suddenly ran up to the podium, phone in hand, with her long black hair billowing behind her. Diana was the opposite of Zoey in class – outgoing socially but less eager in her studies. It went without saying that she, too, was quite popular with the guys. No doubt many of them found a certain exotic sexiness from her Japanese ancestry.
It was hardly a secret that Diana was proud of her body, which she apparently maintained through yoga, and today she was showing it off as usual. She wore tight black yoga pants under a thin blue blouse, through which a black, lacy bra was slightly visible that did its best to boost her small, but pert chest.
It was hard to say "No" to Diana, so Sarah glanced at the screen in her student's hands with a defeated sigh. The video playing had some text that indicated it was a live news feed. A handsome, smartly dressed man holding a "Channel 5" microphone was quickly relaying updates in an excited voice. He gestured around the beach behind him with dramatic, readable motions.
"We are now receiving reports that the Coast Guard has finally located the impact site of the large unidentified object that crashed into the water a couple miles off the coast early this morning," he said, his hand up to his ear as if listening to an earpiece.
Sarah recognized the beach as one just outside of the city. It was where she had lost her virginity during her first college spring break… and had also been the last time she ever had sex in the sand. Big mistake. She involuntarily shuddered at the memory.
"I-um-what... can you repeat that…?" The reporter's tone suddenly changed, and he quickly turned away from the camera with a grim expression on his face. "What do you mean they lost contact…? Hey is this a joke? We're live here...I can't... okay, okay! Cut the feed… cut-" Just then, the man's panicked voice was overtaken by a cacophony of terrified shrieks. The camera jerkily turned to the right to see further up the beach and capture the source.
Sarah felt her hand absentmindedly reach up to her agape mouth. Diana's grip on the phone began to shake and other students in the classroom let out loud exclamations of shock.
"Yo, what the FUCK!?" Said a man's voice from behind the camera, as a sudden impact sent it tumbling to the sand below, where it continued to record the horrific action unfolding all over the once peaceful beach.
Emerging from the turbulent, frothing waves were hundreds of floating, translucent pods. They were similar in shape and size to hot air balloons but with the major differences being that they were seemingly composed entirely of some sort of mottled, flesh-like substance and had long, thick tentacles that dangled from the bottom and languidly swayed in the morning ocean breeze.
They gave the impression of being gigantic flying octopi, and it soon became clear that the hanging pink tentacles were not just cosmetic. A twenty-something blonde woman was standing next to a dark-haired man whom Sarah assumed to be her boyfriend. Both had their phones out and were excitedly recording the events going on behind them, apparently more concerned with their online followers than their own safety. As such, they didn't notice the writhing mass of tentacles that suddenly lurched towards them from above.
In a flash, the tendrils wrapped themselves around both of their waists and violently yanked them up into the air. The man yelped and dropped his phone in a useless attempt to wrestle with the powerful bindings. The woman screamed and kicked her legs, but impressively managed to keep recording.
That's some serious dedication, Sarah mused to herself, feeling the fear and curiosity of the unknown begin to grip her pounding chest.
Several more tentacles from the floating pods continued to rapidly scour the beach, grabbing more and more of the fleeing people as they lazily floated along the sand.
Each person was reeled up into the sky and unceremoniously dumped into the transparent orb at the top of the creature… or at least Sarah thought it was a creature. As a biologist, she was familiar with many forms of life, but this thing was completely alien to her. The captives inside of it quickly began to flounder around, crawling over each other in an attempt to tear at the walls to escape. Their frantic efforts didn't yield any results. Sarah felt a chill roll down her spine from witnessing their helplessness.
After a few minutes, the main wave of the alien balloons had almost entirely drifted out of the camera's view, headed towards the city. However, some of the creatures apparently decided that they were finished; their collection sacs were nearly bursting with struggling captives. The curves of their humans' bodies pushing against the membranous walls of their living prison and gave it a grotesque, bumpy appearance. Without warning, a viscous, orange fluid suddenly began to gush up from the base of the sac and engulf the frantic people within.
The commotion died down rapidly as if everyone inside the liquid-filled balloon had gently drifted off to sleep. A bead of cold sweat dripped down Sarah's forehead. She was momentarily worried that she had just witnessed dozens of deaths, but then she noticed small air bubbles visibly rising from the mouths some of the captives - a sign that they were somehow still able to breath, perhaps? As a human, she was deeply disturbed, but as a scientist, she couldn't help but be interested in this logic-defying spectacle.
She didn't have long to study the scene, though, as the mysterious balloons slowly began to drift back out towards the ocean. As they began to sink back into the depths, it looked as if the bathing suits and other clothing items of the slumbering humans were slowly beginning to dissolve away in the liquid.
Though it was hard to tell from this distance, Sarah thought she saw one woman's newly exposed breasts being pressed against the sleeping face of the man squeezed in next to her, but then the waves covered the rest of the creature, and it was gone from sight. The beach was now eerily quiet; the only sounds that remained were the rolling waves and the cawing of startled birds from above. The idyllic peace did not last long.
Another scream snapped Sarah back to her senses. This time it was not coming from the phone. She didn't realize she'd been staring into empty space for some time now as Diana had already run towards the chaotic school hallways. Shouts and panicked yells could be heard all over the campus as several faculty members' attempts to restore order were met with futility. It almost felt to Sarah as if the world was gradually speeding up from slow motion.
"P-professor Cassidy!" Zoey's worriedly shouted while tugging on Sarah's white lab coat. "W-we should go! Everyone's freaking out outside! What's going on, professor!?" The look of fear and confusion in her eyes tugged at Sarah's heart, but for the first time she didn't have any answers for her young student.
"Calm down, Zoey," Sarah replied, in what she hoped was a convincingly calm voice. "I don't know what's happening out there, but I do know that panicking won't solve anything. So let's just carefully make our way outside together, ok?"
"Mhm…" Zoey shakily sighed as she relaxed her grip on the coat. Both women made their way to the door of the now deserted classroom. The window-less halls had quieted down by now as most people seemed to have made it outside already, but the distant sounds of sirens and panic could still be heard.
Sarah moved out into the hallway and began to walk swiftly towards the stairs to the ground floor, following the evacuation guidelines. Zoey was not far behind. They burst out of the doors and into the morning autumn air, still brisk from the night. Looking around, they could see that many groups of people were continuing to file out of buildings, with some heading to the parking lots while others simply stood around talking in confusion.
"Zo!" Diana suddenly exited from a nearby crowd and ran towards them. "I was worried I'd lost you! Didn't you see my texts?" Diana wore an expression of both annoyance and worry.
"Sorry, Di… you know I keep my phone on silent during class." Zoey said sheepishly, now glancing at the phone in her pocket, which indeed indicated several missed messages. The two girls began to chat as Sarah looked around to take stock of the surroundings, hoping to see other faculty members successfully finding ways to take control of the situation.
"Sarah!" A familiar man's voice rang out and Sarah looked over her shoulder to see a figure approaching them.
"Professor Sparhawk!" Zoey exclaimed, noticing him just after Sarah did.
"Eh? You know this guy?" Diana asked incredulously.
"Unlike a certain lazy someone, I do extracurricular work between classes," Zoey declared, clicked her tongue. "Professor Sparhawk is the supervisor for one of them. I'm making connections any way I can!" Zoey crossed her arms proudly.
"Adam! Ahem… Adam." Sarah chirped, fighting to hide the girlish excitement in her voice. He was well built with dark brown hair, steel-gray eyes, and just the right amount of stubble on his chin. He had a couple years on Sarah, but they had both started teaching here at the same time and she had had a small crush on him ever since.
Silly crushes are for giggling schoolgirls, she always thought, and besides, he's a coworker. But her attempts to squash her feelings did little to prevent her thoughts from drifting to him while alone in bed at night. She could suddenly feel her pulse in her private region, but she did her best to ignore the distraction and keep a straight face.
Adam pushed his way through the scrambling crowds and managed to get over to the three women, taking a moment to collect himself before speaking. He had to raise his voice a little to make it discernable through the din around them.
"Ms. Jones," he nodded at Zoey before turning to Diana. "Ms…?"
"Suzuki. Diana Suzuki," she answered.
"Ah, I believe I've seen you around the natural sciences wing. I'm Adam Sparhawk. I teach mechanical engineering, so we don't cross paths much, huh?" He shrugged, "Everyone from my department has already evacuated... I assume you've seen the news?"
"Yeah, we were just watching… whatever that was down on the beach." Sarah looked up at him, finding some extra mental stability with another adult nearby.
"I've been following the news on the radio," Adam replied grimly, holding up a small handheld device. "The National Guard has been called. It sounds like these freaking things have been popping up all over the world!"
"Oh my god…" Sarah shook her head in disbelief.
"This can't be real…" Zoey moaned. She clutched her arms to stop them from shaking.
"Does this mean exams are going to be delayed?" Diana quipped, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't help much.
"I'm glad you are calm enough for jokes, Ms. Suzuki," said Adam, turning to the nervously smiling Diana. "But right now, we need to-"
He was cut off by the sudden blaring of the earthquake alarms coming to life across the city. The familiar, yet jarring test-tones echoed through the campus courtyard before a monotone male voice began to relay information.
"The following message is transmitted at the request of the California Emergency Management. At 8AM Pacific daylight time, a group of unidentified objects entered several beachside metropolitan areas. They have been confirmed to be dangerous. At this time, all residents of the state of California are strongly advised to seek shelter indoors, avoid windows, and lock any entrances. Tune into local news broadcasts as updates are made available." The test tone played again, and the recording started to repeat.
Chaos. Everyone in the courtyard started running towards the campus doors to get back inside. People were shoved out of the way and nearly trampled. Bags were thrown to the ground, and the chorus of panicked yells was almost as loud as the alarms.
"Let's go!" Zoey yelled to the small group, her eyes suddenly sharp and focused. As she turned to sprint towards the door that she and Sarah had recently exited from, Adam grabbed her arm.
"Wait. This isn't the place to be," he said in a calm voice. "Come on, I know a better spot!" He began to jog towards the street while beckoning the rest of the group.
"Where are we going?" Sarah huffed as she ran to catch up. She was glad she had opted to forgo wearing heels today, despite it not being a lab session. Zoey and Diana easily kept pace alongside her as all four of them hit the sidewalk.
"Well, you know how they say a doomsday prepper is crazy every day except one?" Adam yelled over his shoulder. He was met with mixed reactions.
"N-not really…"
"I don't think I've heard that exact line before…"
"Hmm… yeah, maybe something similar I guess…?" The women glanced at each other with uncertain faces.
"It was a rhetorical question!" Adam turned up the street and the other three followed. "My engineering hobby kinda led me to make an underground survival bunker." The women blinked at him. "Don't judge me! It was for a YouTube video. But while I was at it, I thought, 'hey - let's get this thing working for real!'" Adam's voice showed signs of embarrassment, but he kept his head high as he ran.
"Are you serious!?" Sarah asked in a loud voice, having slightly fallen behind the younger, more athletic girls. "We should just go back!"
"Did you see the madhouse in there? Besides, we all saw those things. There's no way we want to be grouped up in a public space like that!"
"You… have a point… but isn't this a little…"
"I'm not a crazy killer or anything, Sarah. I'm just an engineer. Please, you can trust me! My house is only a block away!"
Sarah felt nervous about going to the house of a man whom she barely knew outside of work, but she wasn't alone. She certainly didn't think Adam was a sketchy guy - she was attracted to him, after all. Still, she couldn't help but think of awful scenarios.
Her head became clouded with thoughts of her and the girls being forcefully stripped naked by his strong hands and tied up with their legs lewdly spread open. Adam would glide his appreciative eyes over their exposed bodies before having his way with them while the world outside burned.
Sarah shook her head and felt a small spot of moisture between her legs as gentle warmth crept into her abdomen. She was certainly not into the idea of being abused, but it had been a while since she'd been with a man, so even small or dark erotic thoughts got her worked up these days. She swallowed and found her resolve.
"Girls, I say we go for it. what do you think?" Sarah asked.
"I think that's the safest bet for now..." Zoey replied, nodding resolutely.
"I'll go where you go! It's not like I have any better ideas." Diana agreed.
"We're close; it's this way!" Adam shouted as he continued to lead, pushing past several other people running up and down the sidewalk.
They turned the corner at the end of the block and got a glimpse of the distant city skyline. Pillars of black smoke rose up in several spots and more of those strange balloon-like beings could be spotted floating up alongside the tall buildings.
A loud smashing sound made Sarah jerk her head back over her shoulder to see one such creature attacking the college campus behind them. A woman attempting to open her car door several hundred feet away from them suddenly got hoisted into the air screaming.
"F-fuck! Where did that come from!?" Diana gasped.
"Ah… ah… w-we were just there a moment ago!" Zoey looked to be on the verge of tears, her iron-willed sports persona suddenly shattering.
"Hurry! We're here! get in! Get in!" Adam sprinted into the front lawn of a nearby house and began to frantically fumble with the lock on a small wooden shed.
"Shit, shit! This is it?? Adam, oh my god they're coming!" Sarah yelled from behind the fumbling man, watching yet another tentacled monstrosity crest the nearby houses. "Get us inside NOW!"
"Dammit I'm trying! I made this lock tricky on purpose in order to impress the audience, okay!? Fuck me! I'm so fucking dumb!" With a final holler, he suddenly burst through the door and into the shed. The women all crowded into the small space and hastily closed the door behind them. Though it looked like wood, it was clearly some sort of painted steel.
"Give me a little space, please!" Adam yelled, his frustration and fear taking him over. "Back up!" He pushed aside a rug on the floor and tossed it beside a rack of gardening tools. Underneath was a hatch, which he was already prying open to reveal a ladder leading deep into the earth. He held the door open, and some color began returning to his face as he calmed down.
"Ladies first," he said, trying to hide how shaky his voice was. He flicked a switch on the wall and the tunnel downwards became illuminated in a dim red light. They didn't have to be asked twice, especially with the sounds of screams and an unearthly groaning from above getting closer by the second.
They each practically slid down the ladder, with Adam going last. He firmly secured the hatch behind him, leaving them all in the eerie red glow of the bunker. The layers of earth above them shut out the terrifying sounds and for the first time that morning, silence surrounded the group.
"Come on." Adam took the lead again and squeezed past the ladies through the narrow passage. He pressed a button, and more lights came on as a generator loudly whirred to life.
They moved to the end of the hall and stared around, mouths agape. It was what could only be described as a man-cave. A small bar with drinks, a beaten-up old couch in front of a large television with gaming consoles, a sword mounted on the wall, and the like, all surrounded by merrily blinking Christmas lights that lined the ceiling.
"I, uh, know it's not much to look at…" Adam said, scratching his stubble and looking down. It was hard to tell if he was blushing or if it was just the red lighting from the hall behind them. "But make yourselves at home. I need to go start up a few other things. Feel free to look around! Bathroom's that way." He pointed at a doorway connected to the hall. They noticed a few other doors as well. "I've got food storage, a small kitchen, some bedrooms, and a communications 'slash' monitoring room as well. Just don't touch anything in there please."
"A-Adam… this is…" Sarah started to speak.
"Childish… right?" He replied nervously, his back still turned to them.
"AWESOME!" Yelled Diana, who ran into the room and began to touch everything, "It's like the Bat Cave!" She pulled the sword off the wall and gave it a few mock swings. Adam turned around with a look of surprise and bemusement on his face, clearly happy that his geeky hobby was receiving such praise.
"Is that right? Well, I'm glad!" He laughed, beaming as he began to flip some more switches and plug a few things in. The gentle hum of machinery started to reverberate through the air.
"Um, Professor Sparhawk…?" Zoey asked nervously. She was looking at her phone with disappointment. "You mentioned a communications room… would I be able to use that to call my family? My phone doesn't get signal down here."
"Oh… oh god of course! You all must be worried! I'll be right over to set you up. I have a signal booster somewhere in there." Adam finished what he was working on and brought them over to a side room that had several monitors and speakers set up with complicated-looking interfaces. "I ought to call mine too and let them know I'm safe."
"Your, um, family isn't in your house up there?" Sarah asked sheepishly, gesturing to the ceiling and the ground above. "I assumed they would be joining us here."
"What? Oh, no, it's just me. My parents live out in Boston." Adam replied absentmindedly as he began to turn on some of the devices.
"Oh, good." Sarah sighed.
"Good?"
"Ah… yeah…! Good that they aren't wrapped up in all of this!" Sarah gulped and felt a little bit of warmth reach her neck.
"Mm. Well, we can only hope," Adam agreed, nodding slowly. "Last I heard, the sky jellyfish were being seen all over the place. Ah, here we go." A radio suddenly crackled to life and the group listened in, intently holding their breaths.
"-that's why the military can't do anything! Because of all the human hostages in these things!" A man's gravelly voice could be heard amidst the static. "Not that firearms have been effective anyway, but we need to be thinking of other solutions. Ground teams lost contact with Air Force One a little while ago, and government response has been all over the place. We need to call it as it is, people: aliens! It's aliens like from the movies! We need to rise up and-" The broadcast continued like this for a while, weaving complex conspiracy theories about the nature of the invading creatures. Adam cycled through several channels only to hear the same things, ranging from fear mongering to solemn prayer. He sighed and turned the radio off after hearing someone accuse the Chinese for a second time.
"Here, plug this into your phone's charge port." He said, handing Zoey a cable. "I only have one, so we'll have to take turns."
"Thanks…" Zoey gently took the cable and connected it to her phone. "It seems to be working; I have a signal!" She quickly pressed a few buttons on her screen and held the phone up to her ear under her disheveled golden hair. "C'mon, c'mon pick up Stevie… pick up…!" She muttered under her breath. The ringtone suddenly stopped, and her eyes widened.
"Stevie? Stevie is that you!? Are you alright!? How are mom and dad?" Zoey's tongue was practically tying itself into a knot in an attempt to ask as many questions as possible in a single breath. "Wh... what…? Gone…? Where are you right now? Oh my god… s-stay there… I'm gonna get you help! Wait! Wait Steven, don't-!"
She jerked up out of her seat and yanked the cable from her phone. "My parents are gone!" She cried. "M-my brother, Steven, is hiding in his closet but there was a loud noise and he suddenly hung up on me! W-we have to go save him! I-I don't know what I'll do if… if…" Zoey's blue eyes became reddened with tears as she desperately looked back and forth at the group members.
"Slow down, Zoey…" Sarah gently put her hand on the terrified girl's shoulder. "We can leave rescue missions to the professionals. I'm sure that any minute now we will get news of rescue workers evacuating citizens…" She looked hopefully over Zoey's shoulder at Adam, who was now listening in on the radio with an earpiece. He glanced at her and slowly shook his head with a grim expression.
"Besides, how would we even get there? I'm sure everything will be okay." Sarah had found that one trick to being an effective teacher was faking confidence.
"Y-you don't know that! We have to go help him NOW!" Zoey cried out. Diana nervously shuffled in place and cleared her throat.
"Well, her house isn't too far away… I'd say it's probably a ten-minute jog from here. Part of the reason why her parents offered to pay for her to go to USC was so that she could be close to home. Helicopter parents and all…" Sarah wasn't sure if she was just imagining the subtle hint of envy in Diana's words.
"O-oh… did I not mention that…?" Zoey stammered, clearly flustered. "Yeah, I live close by; we could do it! Di agrees with me!" She sniffed, lifting her glasses in order to dry her eyes on her sleeve.
"Umm… well, I n-never really sa-" Diana stuttered.
"Diana, please!" Zoey pleaded.
"Did you somehow miss the giant aliens flying all over the city on the way here?" Adam snapped, spinning in his chair. "Zoey, I know you're a smart girl. How exactly do you plan to get there and back without being grabbed by one of those things?" He looked at her incredulously. "Not just that, but this bunker was only designed to support four people long term at MAX. Adding a fifth would put severe pressure on our resources."
Zoey stared at him with sad puppy dog eyes and a quivering lip. She stood there practically swimming in her oversized hoodie, looking absolutely pitiful with her tear-streaked cheeks and messy hair.
"Dammit…" Adam swore under his breath, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "Fine! Fine. We'll figure this out." He pulled a map out of a drawer and spread it on a desk. "Show us exactly where your house is."